Congress Needs to Follow Biden’s Lead on Guns

The litany is shamefully familiar, but needs repeating until lawmakers finally pay attention. More than 100 Americans die from gun violence each day — some in massacres that seize the national headlines, most in quieter tragedies that don’t. No other country in the developed world endures gun carnage on such a scale. This drumbeat of senseless misery and the persistent inattention of U.S. politicians made the intervention of the White House last week good to see. President Joe Biden called the problem what it is: a public-health crisis and a national disgrace.

That in itself is progress, and the measures Biden introduced by executive action are welcome — though no more than a start. Congress needs to follow the president’s lead and rouse itself.